2853  Impressions from the first tango trip to Buenos Aires. Part 1

Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2004 18:28:19 +0000
From: Oleh Kovalchuke <oleh_k@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Impressions from the first tango trip to Buenos Aires. Part 1

The city

OK, here I go like so many people before me: Me Buenos Aires queridooooo

Where to start Buenos Aires fits like an old expensive shoe - both shabby
and lush, bustling with people, taxis and people in the taxis. It reminded
me post-soviet Kyiv with some ostentatious architecture, multistory
apartment buildings, tenuous traffic rules, street kiosks, street vendors,
great coffee and food, and Food! Atkins would feel at home in the city.
Since my Spanish was lacking I resorted to simple solution - I would order
the most expensive dish on the menu and not a single time did I go wrong.
The most expensive would equal about 15 pesos or about $5 at neighbourhood
restaurant. My Franklin electronic dictionary also came to be very handy at
the restaurants.

Ladies, one word: shoes.

Move around on feet or in taxi. The furthest milonga I went to (Salon
Canning) is 9 pesos taxi ride from center. You need to know street addresses
of milongas to get to them in taxi.

--------------------

The music

Tango is heard all over the city. At milongas golden era orchestras are
played: D Arienzo, Troilo, Calo and Canaro are the most popular as far as I
can tell. I didn t use to have D Arienzo played at milongas here. Not
anymore. CDs are 16-18 pesos ($6) here and you can listen to all of them at
Zivals music store (one block from El Beso and seven blocks from my hotel).
So I spent three hours for three days rummaging through the store
collection. The beauty of living in the place like BsAs is that you could
dance to a lovely tune at night and get it at Zivals the very next day. On
fifth day of my stay as I dropped in to get Corazon de Oro by Canaro I was
greeted with como estas by clerk in the store.

Incidentally Corazon de Oro makes perfect soundtrack to BsAs sidewalks. I
put it on repeat in my CD player and walked seven blocks back to my hotel
via some of the busiest streets in the Buenos Aires. I know I looked dorky
with headphones in my ears and CD player clutched in my hand but this was
one of my more memorable city experiences.

_________

The lessons

Private lesson with Maria Plazaola. I went to El Beso on Monday evening
where Maria from La Academia was teaching beginner lesson and scheduled a
private for Tuesday. The lesson was good - I have learned the step I wanted
to learn (I walk on double beat and lead the follower into back ochos to
single beat), plus two variations I wasn t aware of; Maria learned two new
English words: cute - the way she walks and stubborn - I am in general.
Maria told me that I do too much with my feet and that of all milongueros
only Gavito does something similar with his feet. I countered in my usual
manner that as long as I maintain connection, dance to the music and lead
well my footwork is icing on the cake, belongs to my personal style (I have
danced with another instructor from La Academia later at Milonga de las
Morochas and she told me she likes the way I dance, other local dancer at Lo
de Celia told me that I dance like porteno).

I expected that private lessons in BsAs would be three times cheaper than in
the US like anything else. Not so. 150 pesos per hour. This particular
lesson was worth it even though the price quenched my desire to take more
than one private lesson.

I also took group lesson with Maria at El Beso. Here country discounts do
apply (10 pesos per lesson). There were four instructors working with a
group of 40 students (intermediate and advanced). First we did some
stretching exercises then instructor showed a sequence of steps and everyone
has repeated it with partner rotation. After a five minute break the class
was divided into two groups: advanced and intermediate. I was labeled
advanced. New sequence of steps was introduced and worked on. At some point
leaders and followers were separated to work out their respective patterns.
What can I say about the group class? I do not like learning and teaching
sequences especially since Maria insisted on doing them exactly as shown.
Neither do I like to separate leaders and followers because every step
should be lead and improvised according to specific partner and to music.

Cheers, Oleh K.
Colorado Springs
https://TangoSpring.com